Virtualisation saves Microsoft users $500,000 per year

Microsoft says the companies have used the software to help reduce operational and capital expense in terms of everything from data centre power consumption to new hardware, desktop automation and server management, and centralised application deployment. “Virtualisation software allows businesses to pool computing resources to drive down IT costs, increase IT efficiency and be more responsive to business needs,” observes David Greschler, director of integrated virtualisation at Microsoft. “Customers are getting a better bang for their buck with the Microsoft platform … because virtualisation is in both the operating system and in the holistic management tools. Customers can manage IT services and a broad set of applications across the data centre and desktops. There is less of a learning curve for customers, and it eases interoperability with existing systems,” he adds. Greschler explains that Microsoft’s approach to virtualisation incorporates server and presentation virtualisation into Windows Server 2008 and unlimited virtual machine management with Microsoft System Centre suite license – and suggests that this is helping to break down barriers to adoption. David Straede, president and CEO of Santa Barbara Web Hosting, agrees: “The VMware ESX solution would have cost $30,000 for four servers. With Microsoft, we have a service provider agreement that allows for monthly payments with no capital costs – costing less than $1,000 over the life of the contract,” he says. “Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V has the core features businesses need. It’s the Windows people know; it’s installed just like other Windows-based applications; and it works in a management console that IT staff are already using. The ESX feature set simply doesn’t justify its additional expense.”